A Trainer's Story
by rainbowissa
Summary: My pokemon fanfic from my other site, figured I would give it a try here.


Chapter 1  
Two years ago, I tearfully said goodbye to my mother, grabbed my bags and stepped on the ferry. It would take me from Pallet town to Cinnabar Island, where I was going to study under Blaine.  
The memories come flooding back as I step of the ferry again and see my mom. Her eyes filled with tears as she ran forward to embrace me. It feels so good to be home, I thought. Maybe I should start farther back...  
  
When I stepped of the ferry and got my first glance of Cinnabar Island, I saw that it was pretty much like every other town. It had a pokecenter, pokemart, Gym, and a few houses. It also had a Labratory where the new technolegy as being tested.   
I began to look around for the person who was supposed to be waiting for me. That can't be him, I thought, he is way to hot.   
The guy I was talking about looked about 13, my age at the time, and he was indeed good looking. He had short brown hair and brown eyes. He smiled at me as he saw me staring at him.  
"Hi, my name is Aaron, you must be Melissa," he said offering his hand.  
"Are you my guide?" I asked hopefully.  
"No," he replied with a chuckle, "I'm actually one of your classmates. I'm going to study under Blaine too." Even better, I thought. You have to remember, I was only 13.  
"So is there anybody else?" I asked.  
"Yea, her name is Liz and I think that is her over there," he replied. I turned and looked at who he was pointing too.   
She looked about 13 also, she had long blondish hair and bright green eyes. She had on tight pants and a thin white shirt. She stood very confidently and looked though she had traveled before. She saw both me and Aaron staring at her, smiled and walked over.  
"I'm so glad, I thought I would never get to come here and not have my parents breathing down my neck," she said. I glanced at Aaron, he was broadly grinning back at her. I rolled my eyes.  
"Well, we might as well get settled in," Aaron said, "Follow me and I'll show you the Gym, where you will spending the next 2 years of your life."  
Liz and I quickly picked up our bags and followed him.  
Chapter 2  
He led us to the gym and inside. There was first a waiting room of sorts, with a couple couches, radio, tv and fuzball table. At the other end of the room there were several doorways, 3 or 4. We went through the far left one. It went into another small room with 3 doorways covered with blankets hanging in front of the doorway.   
"These are our rooms, they're all the same," Aaron began, "each has a small bathroom, dresser and radio. You get to pick what you want to sleep on. You can pick that later, right now you should probably just get all your stuff in your rooms. I have the middle room and you two get to fight over the others," he said with a grin.  
"If it doesn't bug you, I would really like to have the one on the right," Liz said.  
"No problem, I would rather have to one on the left anyway," I said happily agreeing. She smiled back and we both moved toward our rooms at the same time.  
{indent) I gently pushed aside the curtain and stepped inside. It was a medium-sized room with (as Aaron had said) a dresser with a radio on it and a small door leading to a small bathroom. I was just about to put my stuff down in one of the corners when a someone knocked on my "door" (they actually knocked on the wall beside the curtain).   
"Come in," I said, a little nervous. The curtain was pushed aside and in walked a man with a long robes on and a shaved head. He looked around at my room approvingly and when I asked him if he wanted something, he seemed to snap out of a trance.  
"Terribly sorry, but I came in to introduce myself. I am your instructor, my name is Bill. I will be your teacher of sorts for the next 2 years while you stay here," he explained. I looked at him confused. "Yes, Blaine will also be your teacher, but he is to teach you about pokemon, I am here to teach you about everything else," he explained. I smiled and introduced myself.  
"Hi, my name is Melissa and it is an honor to meet you sir," I said while shaking his hand. There was a knock on the "door".   
"Melissa, are you almost done? We are supposed to go meet Blaine now!" Aaron called anxiously.  
"Coming!" I called. "If you will excuse me sir, I must be going," I said begining to head for the door.   
"Actually, I'm coming with you all, this is an important part of your training you know," he said with a mysterious grin. He turned and walked briskly out. I followed and saw that Liz and Aaron were already standing out there waiting for us.   
Bill lead the way back where we had come from, until we were in the wating room again. This time we took the door on the far right in the waiting room. we entered a hallway of sorts and then turned the corner. We all gasped except Bill.   
This was the gym of Cinnabar Island. It was a very large spacious room that would echo if you yelled just right. There were bleachers on the far side opposite of us and a door in the wall to the left of us. The door opened and Blaine stepped out.  
He was a man about 40 looking. He had a balding head with white gray hair. He also had a mustache and he was wearing a white trenchcoat and black pants. He closed the door behind himself and then walked over to us. He stopped and we all seemed to remember our manners at the same time. We stood up straight and tall and tried to look as "worthy" as possible. He looked at us and when we straightened up, he began to smirk.  
"So you are the trainers that have traveled from Saffron, Fussia and Pallet town to come and train under me? Well let me tell you righ here and now, this is not going to be a goof off place, you are here to learn and learn you shall. In a couple minutes you will choose your first pokemon. They will be of the fire type, you had better not be afraid of fire because by the time you are through here, you will have been burned," he paused. We stood impatiently, aching to choose our pokemon.   
Blaine looked at us for a minute more and then said in a less gruff voice, "I am sure that you will be some of the best trainers I have had the privelage to train." We all relaxed and began to smile.   
"I do not however, know any of you very well, so I could very easily be wrong." He turned and walked just as briskly back to the room he had come from.   
When the door closed behind him, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Bill heard and chuckled.   
"Don't worry," he said smiling, "he is not as bad as he likes to seem. Now, you all have 1 more question to answer before you can choose your pokemon.   
We breathed in sharply and waited tensly for the question.  
"You at the moment do not have a bed of any kind, you have the following choices, you can have a regular bed, a pad to out on the floor, a hammock or a futon bed." We breathed out quickley and giggled.   
"Well, I would really like a futon bed," Liz said hesitantly.  
"I wouldn't mind a pad on the floor," Aaron said sheepishly.  
"A hammock for me please," I said, eager to choose my pokemon.  
Bill nodded, and smiled. He then turned and lead us out the way we had come once more, going to the waiting room and this time, taking the middle door. He opened the door and began to climb the stairs. We followed nervously and soaked in everything when we got to the top.   
On the far side there was a gym like the one we had just entered, though we could tell this was just a practise arena. To the immediate right there were 3 desks and a black board. There was a table between the blackboard and desks. There were several pokeballs setting on the table.  
Bill lead us over to the table and stood expectantly. We lined up in front of him and waited nervously.   
"Now here is the part were you choose your begining pokemon," Bill said dramatically.  
Chapter 3  
He walked over to the desk and pulled out a hand full of cards; he walked back over to us and laid the cards down on the table, each one in front of a pokeball. Each of the cards had the picture of a pokemon on it.   
There was a small fire mouse type that was called cyndaquil, a fire horse called ponyta, a fire dog/tiger type called growlithe, a fire slug/snail type called slugma, a bright red duck type called magby, a black fire type dog called houndour, a small pinkish fire fox called vulpix, and an orange fire lizard called charmander.   
We all glanced nervously, waiting for instructions.  
"There, I'm sure you have all thought about what your first pokemon would be, and you did come to the Fire gym to train. So there are you're choices. If two of you happen to pick the same one, that is ok. So go on, pick," Bill said understandingly.  
Our hands started shakily toward the pokeballs we knew we wanted. Aaron's hand landed on the ball containing cyndaquil, while Liz's landed on vulpix and mine settled on houndour.   
Bill saw the ones we had chossen and smiled. He then picked up the other pokeballs and put them it the cuboard behind him. He turned around and saw us still tensly touching our pokeballs.   
"Why don't you all go to the kitchen and find something for you and you're new pokemon to eat, then you can go in you're rooms and meet them," he suggested kindly. We all nodded and carefully picked up our pokeballs as if they would break. We walked out of the room and did just as he said, went to the wating room, taking the right middle door and rummaging around in the refrigerator we found there. We each made a sandwich and grabbed some pokemon food we found in the cuboards. We did all of it in total silence. We took our food and trooped silently to the landing and into our rooms.  
Once I stepped inside, I noticed that my hammock was set up, ready for me to sleep in. I carefully set down my on the dresser and sat the floor, taking the pokeball out of my pocket.   
I sat in silence for a couple seconds and then threw my pokeball across the room.   
In a flash of light, my pokemon appeared. It looked just like the picture with it's black dog like body with a reddish orangish muzzle and stomach. It had a small silver skull between it's eyes.   
It looked around for a second or so and then walked cautiously over to me. I held out my hand and it sniffed and then licked it. I smiled. this was my pokemon, my very first pokemon, who would be one of my closest freinds for the next 2 years. It saw me smile and jumped into my arms. I held it and started to cry.   
For the next two years my schedule went like this:  
  
6:30. Wake up  
7:30. Breakfast in the commons(waiting room).  
8:30. Training with Blaine in the practise gym.  
12:30. Lunch in the commons.  
1:30. Lessons with Bill in classroom.  
5:30. Chill Time  
6:30. Supper in Commons.  
7:30. Hang out time/homework/alone time.  
10:00. Lights Out.  
Under Blaine we learned about battling techniques, different kinds/types of pokemon, how to talk with other trainers, how to battle with our own pokemon and how to take care of our pokemon. We often got to watch Blaine battle challengers.  
Under Bill we learned regular school stuff like Math, History, Science and Art. We each choose an art and learned how to do it better. We did this because Bill said it was "A good way to express, sooth and calm oneself or others, including pokemon." Liz learned how to express herself while drawing, Aaron choose composing music and I chose a bamboo flute.   
That is how the last two years of my life has gone. The worst day was the last, when we all had to leave for our own homes. We all left at different times as to not upset the others as much. Aaron left in the night, leaving us a note. Liz left right after breakfast on the USS Anne. I left around noon when my ferry came. And that is where we began, so let's just pick right back up were we left off....   
Chapter 4  
My mom let go of me and took a step back studying me.  
"Oh my goodness, I can't believe how much you have grown!" she exclaimed, her eyes brimmming with tears. I wiped my own away and stood up straighter.   
"Let's go home," I said, I little weird because my home had been the Gym for the last 2 years. My mother nodded and led the way. Soon we were there. It didn't look any different, it was like I had never been away. We went inside and I immediatly rushed upstairs to see my old room. I opened the door and gasped, my room was gone! In it's place stood a sewing room that my mom obviously used quite often. I turned around on disbelief and stared slack-jaw my mom who stood cringing at the top of the stairs.  
"What happened to my room?" I asked, still in shock.  
"Well...umm., "my mom began.   
"Nevermind," I said cheerfully, "it's ok mom really it is, I'm leaving soon for my own journay soon anyway, no big deal."  
She started to smile, "Are you sure?" she asked, "do you really have to leave this soon?"  
"Yes," I replied firmly, "I am leaving.." I hesitated.. "The day after tomarrow."  
  
The next day and a half was spent getting ready. I packed a change of clothes, my flute, my hammock, some food, extra pokeballs and potions. I also had a sleeping bag for the case of no good trees around. It fit comfortably in my backpack. I woke up that morning, took a shower and then changed into the clothes I would most likely be wearing for most of my journey. I had a dark purple bandana for my hair, a pair of overalls that I wore with the straps down, a pair of heavy combat type boots, and an orange tank top with a black long sleeve button up shirt over it. I was ready to go.   
I made sure I had ever thing one last time and headed upstairs (I had been sleeping in the basement), my mom was waiting at the top of the stairs.   
"Can I see the pokemon that is going to protect you for whoever knows how long?" she asked tearfully. I nodded silently, pulled out the pokeball containing my houndour and pushed the button to size it to normal. Then I threw it with a practised motion arcoss the room.   
"Her name is Noon," I told my mom as houndour appeared with a flash. My mom gasped at the sight of my little black death hound and then recovered and said "She's lovely, I have no doubts that you will be safe on your journey." I nodded and smiled.  
"Oh and before I forget-here is some money, go to the pokemon shelter and pick out your next companion-Don't say a word," she insisted. "It's my "going away present"."  
I silently nodded once again and my eyes filled with tears. My mom saw this and she rushed to me, unable to contain herself any longer. She gave me a huge hug and told me to "call her at every single pokecenter I got to to let her know that I was alright." I clutched her and nodded. She then told me she "would miss me" and "good luck" and "be good" and "you'll be fine but be careful anyway." she then kissed me on the cheek and went inside. I took a long glance, not knowing when the next time I would see it would be. Then I turned around and walked north, toward Pewter City where Brock, the rock gym master awaited for me to challenge him.  
Chapter 5.  
But first I decided to take my mother's advise and adopt another pokemon from the pokeshelter in town. I strapped on the pair of old roller blades I had found in the basement and skated confidently in the direction of the shelter. 5 minutes later I was there.   
I switched my blades for boots and stepped inside, a little bell ringing as I opened the door. I was now in a small waiting room with several plastic chairs and a counter and door at the opposite wall. I couldn't see anybody else so I hesitantly walked over to the counter and dinged the little bell there.  
"I'm coming," a girl voice yelled out from behind the door. A few seconds later a girl walked out, she looked a little older than me. She had short blonde hair, a gray t-shirt with the word "Volenteer" spelled out in black, light colored camoflage pants and white and blue tennis shoes. I looked back up at her face and she smiled and asked, "Can I help you?".  
"Yea, I kinda want to adopt another pokemon," I said hesitantly.  
"Well then you have come to the right place, follow me please," she said as she lead the way through the door she had come from.  
We entered a small room lined with shelves on all the walls. On the shelves there were pokeballs with labels taped next to them.   
"Did you have anything perticular in mind," she asked sweeping her arm around the room.  
"Well...umm," I hesitanted because I didn't know her name.  
"Jessica."  
"Well Jessica, I was kinda hoping that my houndour Noon could pick out her next freind by smell if that's ok," I asked nervously.  
She smiled, "No problem, my sentret can help to. Your houndour can tell her what pokeball to knock off the shelf." She took a pokeball out of her pocket and threw it arcoss the room. It bounced a couple timed then opened. A small purplish pokemon with a long striped tail and a heart shaped body materialized. It had long ears, short arms and little feet. She chattered expectantly at me. I realized what she wanted and took out Noon's pokeball. I threw it across the room and waited for the pokeball to come back as houndour came out of her ball. Sentret and Noon sniffed noses and licked each other's noses. Sentret chirped and Noon whined and looked at me.  
"Go find us a new friend will ya?" I asked Noon with a smile.  
She panted eagerly and sentret bounced onto her back. They walked over to the shelves closest to them and started the most intersting thing I had seen so far. Jessica and I both sat down to watch.  
Noon walked next to the shelves with her nose in the air, trying to find a particular scent coming from the pokeballs. She hesitanted a couple times, but kept moving. About half way through the second wall, she stopped and started to whine eagerly. Sentret leaped from her back to the 4th shelf up and started to go amongst the pokeballs. She would stop at one and wait for Noon's approval, she got three growls before she got a bark. Sentret chirped happily and pushed the ball off the shelf onto the ground. She then stood right where the ball had been.  
Jessica got up and picked up the pokeball from the ground, then saw where sentret was sitting and frowed.  
"This one is the ball that just came in today, I haven't had time to see what is inside yet. We better go outside to open this one," she said wisely, handing the ball to me. I giggled at the thought of a snorlax in the tiny little room and quickly followed her outside through a back door.  
We stepped outside and stood blinking for a couple seconds, getting used to the bright sunlight. It was a good sized enclosure with a small pool and a net streched across the top to keep the flying pokemon down. I nodded aprovingly and looked to see of she was ready, she nodded and I glanced down at the pokemon. They were on the ground between us, Sentret once again on Noon's back. Both looked at me eagerly. I nodded once more and threw the pokeball. It hit the ground and immedialty opened. The pokeball floated back quickly and I hung onto it tensely, wating to see what the pokemon was.   
It materialized and I relaxed. It was a small yellow pokemon that I had never seen before. It was egg shaped with very short legs and upper arms. It's forearms were huge and only little stubs of fingers could be seen. It had two electrical prongs coming directly from the top of it's head and was all a bright yellow except for black stripes on it's forearms and sides. It also had a small black lighting symbol on it's stomach. It stood there and tried to figure out if we were going to attack. It relaxed and sat down to play with a small pink flower it found near by.   
"Wow, I haven't ever seen a pokemon like that before," Jessica said quietly.   
"Me neither," I said as I pulled out my pokedex from my pocket. It clicked open and it's mechanical voice said:  
"Elekid, electric pokemon, pre-evolution of Electabuzz. Is capable of producing small amounts of electricity from the moment it is born."  
"Cool," Jessica said, talking about elekid and my pokedex.  
"Well Noon," I began, "should we keep him?" She yipped yes and started to pant eagerly, ready for our adventure.   
Jessica smiled," Looks like you have a new friend then, do you want to try to make freinds with him?" I nodded eagerly and walked toward the small pokemon who was still playing gently with the flower. He saw me coming and cautiously stood up. I stopped walking and slowly sat down a couple feet way from him. He looked at me curiously and then walked slowly toward. He reached out a small arm and touched my leg, giving us both a little shock. He looked surprised at what he just did and looked to see what I would do. I smiled back, hoping he would be my next freind. He chirped happily and walked back to his flower. He picked it, walked back and offered it to me. I smiled even brighter and gently took it from him, putting it in my hair. He watched and then smiled and whistled happily, climbing into my arms and giving me a tiny hug. Noon bounded over and started lapping his little face, causing him to smile and chirp even more.   
Elekid then climbed out of my arms and glanced around sleepily. I took out his pokeball and recalled him. He became a surge of red light and was sucked back into the pokeball. I did the same with Noon and downsized them both.  
"I would like to adopt this pokemon," I said happily to Jessica.  
Chapter 6.  
"I thought you might of from that look of bliss on your face when he hugged you," she said smiling. I smiled back sheepishly. We walked back into the waiting room and she pulled out a clipboard with some paperwork to fill out for me.  
"Here you go, if he is the only one you want, then all you have to do is fill these out and you're done," she said. I took the clipboard and sat down on a plastic chair, filling in information such as my age, where I had been trained, how experienced I was and so on. About 5 minutes later I was done and I handed it to her at the counter. She took it and smiled.   
"Well the last thing to do is to catch him. You have to use one of your balls, we'll go outside again and I'll let him lose and if he wants to come with you, then he will let you catch him, other wise, he won't stay in the pokeball." She saw the slightly worried look on my face. "But don't worry, I have no doubts as to if he wants to go with you or not."  
She led me back outside and it went just like she had said. She released him from his shelter ball and he just stood there looking at me smiling. Then I threw one of my balls, it absorbed him and shut, bounced once, twice and then lay still. I had just adopted Elekid!  
I walked over and happily picked up the pokeball, downsized it and out it in my pocket.  
"So is that it?" I asked, ready to get going.  
"Yep, your all done, you can leave now," she hesitanted. "If you come back this way, could you stop by and say hi? I would really like to hear what has happened to you and your pokemon," she glanced at me nervously. My face broke into a smile,  
"No problem, I will be sure to stop by and tell you all that has happened to me." She smiled back, I thanked her and left, with the little bell ringing just as when I had entered.  
  
I stepped outside and realized it was only around 10 o'clock in the morning. I adjusted my backpack straps and started toward Viridian City. Once I got a ways away from Pallet town, I took out my pokeballs, sized them to normal and released my pokemon. As the pokeballs flew back into my hands Noon and elekid shook themselves off and looked around eagerly.  
"Well here we go you guys, the begining of our adventure," I said confidently. Elekid climbed ontop of Noon's back as if to say "Charge" and we all started to walk.   
It took about 10 minutes for the wild pokemon to get brave enough to challenge us. The first one was a Rattata. It leaped out of the grass and started to hiss. It was a small purple rat with a long tail. I glanced at my pokemon to see how they had reacted. Elekid had gotten off of Noon's back and could not seem to understand why her hair was all sticking on straight end, or why her lips were curled up in a snarl. Apparently he hadn't been in many battles. Time for Noon to show him how it's done, I thought.  
"Noon, bite!" I said confidently. Noon nodded and leaped toward Rattata. Rattata used quick attack and ran into her first, barely stopping her charge. Noon bit Rattata and then waited for my next command. I waited to see what Rattata would. Seemed as if it had gotten into more than it had bargined for. It took another good look at my houndour and then turned tail and ran. Noon visibly relaxed and allowed elekid to climb back on top of her back. Elekid seemed to be in deep thought, trying to process what he had just seen.   
We walked on, unchallenged by any more wild pokemon until I decided it was time for lunch. We walked a little further, trying to find a nice place to sit. We found a little stream and decided to eat lunch there. As I took off my backpack and started to rummage through my stuff to find food; Noon and elekid were playing in a shallow part of the stream. I found a couple wrapped sandwiches and unwrapped one and started to eat it. My little death hound smelled the sandwich and quickly came out of the water, shaking herself off as she went. Elekid quickly followed, always doing what Noon did. I laughed and unwrapped two more sandwiches, giving one to each. We ate in silence, listening to the pidgeys chirp and the rattata's squeak.  
After a while, Noon started to perk up her ears and growl low in her throat. Elekid noticed and started to whimper. I quickly finished my sandwich as Noon gulped down hers, still growling. I picked up the unfinished part of elekids and rewrapped it, saving it for later. I put everything back into my pack quickly and quietly, shouldered it and then waited to see what Noon would do. Her growl got more intense and she suddenly started barking fiercly, not moving but growing more tense by the second. Then her barking stopped and her growl got softer until it all but stopped. Her ears, laying flat to her head before, had now come pricked forward, curious. She started to whine and walk towards where she had just been barking. She stopped and looked at me pleadingly.   
I nodded and followed, also curious to see what was going to happen. I scooped elekid in my arms so he wouldn't fall off Noon's back with all the vines we were going through. We struggled through the forest with my houndour in the lead whining more and more insistatly the entire time until we suddenly stepped into a clearing.   
I gasped-there on the ground lay a pokemon, obviously hurt badly!! It was a small brown dog with a white chest fluff and long ears. It as unconcious and was barely breathing. Elekid rushed out of my arms and joined Noon in licking the poor thing. I pulled out my extra long sleeved shirt and my pokedex. It quickly snapped open and said:   
"Eevee, an evolutionary pokemon, it can evolve into one of five different evolutions, depending on it's surrondings."   
  
I quickly snapped it shut and put it back into my pocket. I then gently wrapped it in my shirt and cradled it in my arms. Holding it with one arm, I dug out elekid's pokeball and recalled him.   
"Ok Noon, we have to get this eevee to a pokecenter quick, you find the way and I'll follow you." She woofed in agreement and began to find her way back to the path. We got there in alot less time than it had taken us to get to the clearing and started to go as fast as we could down the path while being as gentle as possible. I almost tripped once, but caught myself at the last second and the eevee yelped painfully; that was the only sound out of her the entire way.   
After about a half hour of running, Noon began to bark eagerly and I saw lights a little ways away. I picked up the pace and we stepped of the path and into Viridian City about 2 minute later.   
I frantically looked around for the pokecenter and found it not 20 feet where I was standing. I ran as fast but smoothly as I could over to it and held the eevee with one hand and opened the door with the other. I got it opened and I quickly stepped inside. I didn't look around for anything but went straight to the counter and gently laid eevee down on a pad on a rolling cart.  
The attendant, her name card said "Nurse Joy", was about to protest but then she looked at the pokemon laying there and just nodded and handed me a clipboard with more information to fill out. I took it in my trembling hands and slowly went back to where the couches where, sitting down heavily and trying to catch my breath.   
I must have looked as bad as I felt because the next thing I knew there was a drink in my hand and a blanket curled around me. I barely had the strength to put down the cup and recall Noon into her pokeball before I passed out in a deep sleep. I knew of nothing more until morning.  
Chapter 7.  
I woke up slowly. The blanket was still curled around me and the cup was still sitting on the table. I slowly sat up and took a small sip. It was cold hot cocoa, but it was good anyway. I slowly put it back down on the table and started to take the time to look around the pokecenter.   
I was in big room. To the left of me was the double doors where I had come in. Where I was sitting was down about 2 stairs from the rest of the room, there were four huge couches all facing the tv. The tv was on, but it was on news with the sound turned low, so i didn't pay attention. Behind me was the counter, behind the counter were several doors. To the left of me was a large opening in the wall and I could see rows of bunkbeds. Probably for all the trainers I thought. There was one other person I could see.   
She was sleeping on the couch opposite from me curled up with a simular blanket as me. She looked about my age and had long dark brown wavy hair with red highlights. I couldn't see most of her clothes from the blanket, but I could see she had on green and white sneakers, with a large blue backpack on the floor by her head. I heard rustling behind me and turned around.  
It was the Nurse from before, Nurse Joy.  
"I'm so happy to see you up and well," she said with a smile. "The eevee you brought in last night was in bad shape and I was scared for a couple minutes; but then she perked right up and is now sleeping peacfully. She will be fully healed in about a week and will be up and walking within a day."  
"What was wrong with her?" I asked worried.  
Nurse Joy grimaced, "She was beaten very badly and was left outside in the cold for too long, she has a small cold," she saw the worried look on my face, "but I assure you that she is just fine now and will fully recover."   
I relaxed and then remebered my manners. "Oh! I forgot to thank you for the blanket and cocoa," I said, but she shook her head and smiled.  
"I didn't do it, I got through making sure the eevee was alright and came out here to cover you up and all but you were already tucked in. The person who must have done it was the girl laying over there," she said, pointing to the girl on the couch.   
Well that one threw me for a loop. I had never met that girl or anything, I couldn't think of any reason why she would do that.  
I sat up straighter and streched. Then I thought of how my pokemon might want to do the same thing and I searched my pockets for the pokeballs. I found elekid's in my pocket and Noon's in my back pack. So I them sized them up and threw them from where I sat. After the pokeballs had come back and they had stretched and awake, they both crawled over to where I sat and started to cuddle with me. They were so close that I could even tell how they smelled, and it wasn't very good. Now that I thought of it, I probably didn't smell very good either from all that running yesterday.   
I stood up and stretched even more. Then I wandered over to the counter right as Nurse Joy came through one of the many doors.   
"Hi, umm.. I was wondering if there was a shower or a washer or dryer or some place I could get clean?" I asked, tired of feeling dirty. Nurse Joy smiled.   
"Yep, just go into the trainer's room and look on the far back wall. There should be a bathroom with private showers and some washers and dryers too," she thought for a moment. "Would you like me to check up on your pokemon while your washing up?"  
"Yes please," I said releved, "that would be great.. Do you want them in their pokeballs?"  
She smiled, "No as they are is just fine. You go on ahead, I'll take care of your houndour and elekid." She saw the puzzled look on my face. "I see alot of different kinds of pokemon everyday, you get to know what they are," she explained with another smile.   
I nodded and went grabbed my backpack and found the shower. I took a nice long shower, put on my other change of clothes and put my dirty clothes in the washer. Then I combed out my light brown shoulder length hair and put it in a braid.   
When I walked back into the commons room I saw it was about 10 o'clock and a couple more people were there. I didn't really pay them any mind until I saw the girl who tucked me in sitting on the couch alone. I figured now would be a good time to thank her and I walked over to where she was sitting. I caught her eye on the way there and smiled. She realized that I knew about her and she smiled back but shew still had a worried look on her face. I sat down on the other side of the couch and turned toward her. I opened my mouth to talk but she beat me to it.  
"Is Eevee ok?" she asked frantically, "because the eevee you brought in yesterday is actually mine and I would really like to know if she was ok because the nurse won't tell me because she's not supposed to and I'm really worried!" Her eyes started to fill up with tears.  
"Yes," I said reasuringly, "your eevee is fine and doing well. Nurse Joy said she will fully recover in about a week and be walking before tomarrow. But I have to ask you, what happened to her?"  
She breathed a huge sigh of relief and then struggled to explain it.   
"I'm still not exactly sure, I was walking through the forest and then I don't rememer what happened. Then I woke up and my pokeballs and money were gone and I ran to here and asked Nurse Joy if anybody had reported an eevee or a Marill and she said no. So I waited because I didn't know what else to do. And then a couple hours later you came running in with one of my pokemon in your arms in your shirt and you filled out the forms and everything and you looked so tired. So right before you feel asleep, I got up the courage to cover you with a blanket and give you cocoa. You were so tired you just set the cup down and recalled your houndour, the ball falling out of your hand as you passed out. So I picked up the ball and put it in your back pack. Then I waited to see if Nurse Joy would have anything to tell you when she came out but I fell asleep and now here I am talking to you. And I want to thank you for saving my eevee, now I just hope my Marill is ok." She took a deep breath and relaxed, leaning back on the couch.   
I just sat for a moment, thinking hard. "Well, we need to figure out what happened on your way here and make sure it hasn't happened to other people." I went on to tell her about what had happened to me on the path with Noon growling and barking. Her eyes got big and then she nodded.   
"That's a really good idea, hold on, now what is your name again?" she asked.  
"My name is Melissa.. what's your name?" I answered and asked back.  
"Sara," she said with a smile.   
"Well nice to meet you Sara. I think my laundry is done and I'm going to go switch loads and then I'll come back and we'll talk strategy," I said with a wink.  
Chapter 8.  
  
I switched my laundry and then remembered I was supposed to call my mom. So I went over to the holophone and dialed her number. After a couple rings, her image showed up on the screen in front of me and started to talk with a prerecorded message:  
"Hi, I'm not able to answer the holophone right now, but leave me a message and I'll be sure to call you back when I get this message, Thank you!"  
I put on a huge smile and began to talk:  
"Hi mom! Just wanted to say and all, everything is ok, I'm safe and sound in Viridian City. I adopted an elekid at the shelter and he's really sweet and all... So.. yea, I guess I'll call you from the next city, Bye!"   
I hung up the holophone and started back toward Sara. She looked at me eagerly.   
"Hey, I was wondering, are you hungry?" she asked hopefully.  
"Always, just let me grab my pokemon and my bag," I replied.  
  
5 minutes later we were walking down the street. I had elekid out and in my arms while Noon napped in her pokeball in my pocket. We passed by several regular houses and a pokemart, along with the Viridian City Gym that was closed. As we passed it, Sara told me how she had heard that once the Gym had been a place where a huge Team Rocket Boss had trained and battled. But then a trainer beat him and he dissmissed Team Rocket on the spot.   
"So now they're rebuilding it and I don't know what it's going to be," she said thoughtfully.   
I thought for a moment, "So where are you from and you know, life story and all," I asked.  
"Well, I'm from Vermillion City but I went to train in Cerulian City under Misty. I was her student for a year and then I decided to take the Gym Challenge and start at the begining. So I took the SS Anne to Pallet Town and then walked to Viridian City and here I am."  
So then I told her all about growing up in Pallet, going off to Cinnnabar, coming back and ending up here too.  
"Cool," she said, "And then you saved my eevee and we're friends." Her face lit up with an epiphany, "Do you think we could travel together and ward of evil mobs with the strength of numbers and such?"  
I was shocked by how great the idea was, "That is such a good idea!! Let's do it?"   
"Ok! So now we're traveling together. Sweet." she said excitedly.  
"Ditto," I said with a smile.  
We found a small restaurant a couple minutes later and got Trainer's Discount. We each had a sandwich and water, with some pokefood for my pokemon. We talked about our plans to see what was going on on the path while we ate. We decided we would go today after we were done eating, that we would be really carefull and the first priority was to find Marill. We both agreed, finished, payed and set out for Route 1, the path between Pallet Town and Viridian City.  
Chapter 9.  
  
We walked to the place where I had stopped for lunch and where Noon had started growling. I had both my pokemon with me but Sara had decided to leave Eevee at the pokecenter to let her get completely well again. I let Noon and elekid out of there pokeballs and we just watched to see what their reaction would be. Elekid seemed to know were we were and he kept extra close to Noon. Noon just sniffed the air and then looked at me. I sighed.  
"Well, there isn't anything around here now, maybe we could get Noon to find the place where Eevee was?" Sara suggested hopefully. I nodded.  
"Good idea," I turned to Noon, "Can you get us back to the place we were before?"  
Noon understood and woofed in return. Then she started into the brush off the path. I took a deep breath and followed her, Sara following me. After a few minutes elekid started whimpering so I picked him up and carried him in my arms.  
It seemed to not take as long as before until we got to where we had found Eevee. Noon sniffed at the exact spot and her ears lowered, remembering the condition that eevee had been in. Her ears then perked up again and she tensly sniffed the air. I lightly touched Sara and motioned toward Noon who was standing, scenting the air and standing stiff as a board. She looked back at me and started to growl. I nodded and we once again struggled throught the forest. As we were walking I recalled elekid back into his pokeball and put the pokeball into my pocket. We tried to walk as silently as possible because we had no idea what we were going to stumble onto. About 5 minutes into our hike, houndour stopped and we all heard voices. Human voices.   
"Not right now, tonight, we have to save it for tonight!"  
"But I want to now!"   
"Well do you want to be the one that is blamed when he comes back?"  
".......No..I..We'll wait, not until tonight.."  
"That is what I thought. You there! Guard this until we get back, if you lose it then it's your head. We have to get all the way through this one."  
Slowly the voices faded off in the midst of the crushing of bushes and plants. Sara and I looked at each other.  
"Now what?" she whispered nervously. I thought for a moment.  
"Now I guess we'll just wait until we are sure that those two are gone, then we can be as quiet as possible and get closer to see what is going on," I replied trying to sound confident. Sara nodded.  
We sat down and waited for a couple more minutes until we were both so eager and nervous that is would have been impossible to wait any longer. Sara looked at me questioningly. I nodded and stood up, she did the same. Noon got up from her lying position and slowly started to walk towards where the voices had come from. We walked silently and ready to run at a moments notice.  
We came to a clearing and ducked down behind the brush. From our hiding place, we could see it all. It was a camp of some kind with a couple tents and a campfire and a table with a pokeball on it.   
Sara gasped, "That must be Marill!" She started forward but I held her back and shook my head. She nodded and went back to crouching. I thought for a moment and then picked up a small rock on the ground. I looked around nervously and then threw the rock with all my strength over the camp to the other side opposite us. The noise it made when it hit bushes and dirt brought the guard out of one of the tents. He looked around angrily, mumbled something about "sleeping" and then went back into the tent. After waiting a couple more minutes, I nodded and stood up, Noon and Sara following my example.   
We stepped boldly out into the clearing, witing for alarms or the guard to come running out of the tent but nothing happened. I motioned for Sara to stay and then crouched down beside Noon, whispering in her ear. She licked my cheek and walked toward the table cautiously. She got to the table with nothing happening and cautiously put her front paws on it. She then reached up and took the pokeball in her mouth, careful not to damage it. She then dropped back down and walked back to us quickly. Sara took the pokeball from her mouth and held it, trying to sense what pokemon was inside. She breathed a sigh of relief and downsized it, putting it in her pocket. she nodded at me, her eyes full of tears but a huge smile on her face. I smiled back and began to lead the way back to the path.  
We were walking on the path about 5 minutes alter when we hearda scream of frustration and disbelief. We looked at each other and giggled but walke a little faster until we got back to Viridian.  
Chapter 10.  
When we stepped into the pokecenter, we both felt immediatly better. Sara walked over to the counter where Nurse Joy was and pulled out the pokeball from her pocket.  
"Can you scan this please?" she asked, handing the pokeball to Nurse Joy.   
"Of course," Nurse Joy replied. She took the pokeball to a machine behind her and set it in carefully. The machine was called a Pokeball Scanner and was used to look inside the pokeball without opening it or hurting the pokemon. It could tell what kind of pokemon was inside the ball, it's health and how powerful it was. Jessica could probably use one of those, I thought.  
The Scanner flashed over the pokeball a few times and then showed the information on a nearby computer moniter:  
  
Marill , Water Pokemon , Health: ok , Power level: 18.  
  
Both Sara and I sighed, very reliefed. Her because her pokemon was ok, me because it was ok and I could be certain it was her pokemon.  
Nurse Joy handed back the pokeball and smiled. "Would you like your Eevee back now too?" she asked.  
"Yes please!" Sara said, anxious to have both her pokemon back at once. Nurse Joy nodded and went through one of the the numerous doors behind her. She came back out a couple seconds later with a pokeball in her hands. She handed it back to Sara who smiled and clutched it happily  
"Thank you for coming, we hope to see you again," Nurse Joy said smiling. Sara and I just nodded and smiled back.  
We walked outside the pokecenter and took a seat on the nearby grass. I pulled out elekid's pokeball and released him while Sara did the same with both of hers. Eevee came out of one and out of the other one materialized Marill, a tiny blue round mouse with round ears and white stomach. It also had a tail which consisted of a small blue ball attached by a black zig-zag shaped peice of flesh which I later found out was made of cartilage and the ball helped Marill float in water.  
Marill became solid and stood still for a couple seconds. Then she saw Sara and jumped into her arms, chirping happily the entire time. After both Sara and Marill had gotten used to being with each other again, Marill jumped out of her arms and went to play with the other pokemon. They played a game that looked like tag then started to wrestle and play a rough and tumble kinda game. As Eevee and elekid were only babies, Noon and Marill took special care to see that they didn't hurt. After about a half hour of playing, they were all tired out and they laid down in the fading sunshine and slept.  
Chapter 11.  
Once the we realized it was getting dark, Sara and I woke up our pokemon and we all walked down to the restraurant we had found earlier that day and ate. As elekid finished crunching on his last piece of food, Sara and I decided we should stay in Viridian for one more night, staying at the pokecenter and leaving early tomarrow morning. We payed for the food and recalled our pokemon for the night. We then walked back to the pokecenter and called it a night, each finding a bed to sleep in this time.  
I woke up first and decided to let Sara sleep in a bit. I took a shower and washed my clothes once again, not knowing when I would next get the chance to. As I stepped out of the showers, dressed and clean and ready to go; I saw Sara was just waking up. She smiled and rolled her eyes, mumbling something about "stealing the shower" and threw her pillow at me. I caught it and threw it back. It hit her and she groaned, turning over and pulling the covers over her head at the same time. I laughed and stepped into the main common area of the pokecenter, confident she would be up and ready in a couple minutes. I sat down to watch the news while I waited for her.  
I was right, about 10 minutes later she came out too, showered, dressed and ready to go. I smiled and readgusted my backpack as I went. She rolled her eyes and followed me as I walked out the door.  
We went North on Route 2 toward Pewter City. Sara pulled out her map and studied it as we walked.   
"So we are going on Route 2...so that means...we are going to have to go through Viridian Forest and then we will be there. It's about 10 miles away, so about a day and a half if we take our time," she informed me.  
I rolled my eyes and just kept walking. she put away the map and took out her pokeballs, sized them and let out Marill and Eevee. I did the same with Noon and Elekid. Once the pokemon had finished strething, we all started walking down the path, hoping there wouldn't be any anything to happen to us this time. As we were walking, elekid climbed untop of Noon's back and Marill ontop of Eevee. Sara and I giggled at the infinate patience that Noon seemed to have. Sara turned to me, "So where did you think up Noon's nickname?" she asked curiously.  
I thought for a moment, "Well I was thinking of all the names I could name her and nothing seemed to fit her. So I just gave up after a awhile and called her houndour. One day at our gym, Blaine battled a trainer who's pokemon had nicknames that seemd to be the exact opposite of what you expected, like he had an Onix that was nicknamed "Thunder" and a Magmar named "Bubbles". So I thought a bit and figured the most likely name for houndour would be something to do with night or evil. So I decided to name her Noon, the oppposite of Midnight. And she liked it." I finished and Noon whined in agreement. Sara seemed satified and sunk into thought. A couple minutes later:  
"Well I want to nickname my pokemon because it makes them seem more like the family they are instead of the pets they aren't," she said thoughtfully. I nodded in agreement. We talked while walking about all the different names she could choose. Everyonce in a while we would think of a cool name and ask Eevee or Marill if they liked and they would think for a minute and then growl or whimper soflty and we imediantly gave up the possiblity of that name.   
Sara had a thought,"Maybe I should just shorten their names, like for Marill, it could be like ...Mara or something like that," she said cautiously. Marill suddenly started to chirp and coo and jumped up onto Sara's shoulder, nuzzling her ear and making her giggle.  
"So you like the nickname "Mara" Marill?" She asked amoungst giggles. Mara nuzzled her even harder and started to squeak.  
"Ok! Ok! Your nickname is Mara then!" she was almost crying now. Mara cooed happily and jumped back onro Eevee's back. Sara grinned happily.   
"One down, one to go," she said grinning.   
By this time we had been walking for an hour or without any signs of wild pokmon or trouble. We had now come upon a paved part of the Route and figured out that we both had rollerblades. We immediatly stopped, had a small snack and strapped on our blades. We thought for a minute about how the pokeon were going to keep up with us but they solved it themselves. Mara jumped on Eevee's back and Elekid did the same with Noon. We smiled and began to blade slowly down the path, the two larger pokemon loping along comfortably beside us.  
  
Chapter 12   
  
After a half hour or so of loping, Noon and Eevee started to slow down and Sara and I decided to take a lunch break. We sat in the shade of a large tree and all munched on some sandwiches and pokefood (for the pokemon of course). Sara looked at her map and decided that we had come about 5 miles already today and that we would be to the entrance of Viridian Forest by nightfall, which is when we had planned to stop for the day. After we finished our lunch and she had finished her little informational brief, we recalled the two larger pokemon for a rest and decided to carry Mara and elekid in our arms while we bladed. We packed back up and started down the trail, more aware than ever of the lack of wild pokemon. 


End file.
